213 Miles From Shea

The World Baseball Classic is already started this month with some surprises.

In the first qualifier, Israel, Spain, France and South Africa were all trying to advance to the next round. Israel was the favorite going in as the WBC allowed Jewish players in minor league baseball (or former major leaguers) to play for team Israel. France and South Africa were eliminated first, and in an extra inning victory, Spain beat Israel, which makes the actual WBC a lot less messy as Jewish baseball players (Braun) would have had the option to play for Israel or the USA.

In the second qualifier, Canada beat out Germany, Great Britain, and the Czech Republic. This isn’t really a surprise. Canada didn’t win a game in the last tournament so they had to do play in this round.

To make a long story short, in the first two qualifiers, Israel, France, South Africa, Germany, Great Britain and the Czech Republic have all be eliminated.

Spain and Canada are moving on, with Spain being the first surprise of the team.

There will be two more qualifiers coming up to get the last two spots in the March tournament. Also, I know this is hard to imagine, but you can already purchase hats for all of the countries, even the eliminated ones.

The Mets look to win five in a row tonight as they take on the Pirates for game 2. Last night Davis knocked two out of the park as he hit the 30 homer mark for the season. He and the rest of the Mets offense (although the Pirates starter is left handed, so I guess that means Davis gets the bench today?) look to back up Collin McHugh who is 0-2 in 5 games and 3 starts on the season with a 3.86 ERA while pitching 18.2 innings and striking out 14 batters. Collin hasn’t pitched against the Pirates yet in his career and no one on the Pirates roster has stats against McHugh.

Wandy Rodriguez is 11-13 on the season while pitching in 32 games making 31 starts over 193.2 innings with a 3.76 ERA. In his last three starts he is 1-0 with a 4.32 ERA while striking out 12 batters in 16.2 innings. He made one start against the Mets this year pitching 7 innings allowing only one earned run, the Mets have the following numbers against Rodriguez:

Bay 10-22, 4 2B, 2 HR
Wright 6-21, 2 2B
Hairston 7-16, 3 2B, 2 HR
Davis 0-5
Tejada 3-4, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!

The Mets start their final home series of the season tonight as they host the Pirates. Jenry Mejia gets the nod for the Amazins tonight as he looks to rebound from his first start of the season. So far in 3 games this season, he has allowed 6 ER in 6 innings of work, and in his last outing he allowed 3 hits and no runs in 1.0 innings of work. In 2010 he pitched 2.1 innings against the Pirates walking 2 batters and allowing one unearned run. The Pirates have the following numbers against Jenry:

Sanchez 2-5, 2 2B
McCutchen 0-1
Alverez 0-1
Tabata 0-1

McPherson is 0-1 over 8 games and 2 starts on the season pitching 16 innings with a 2.25 ERA. In his last start he allowed 2 ER over 4.1 innings while allowing 7 hits. Kyle has never faced the Mets at the major league level as a rookie this year, thus has no official AB’s against the Mets. Total mystery.

Let’s Go Mets!

With San Francisco and Cincinnati clinching their divisions last night, we get a look at what the Mets missed out on  postseason wear for teams this year. Below are pictures from the MLB shop of the Giants Championship gear:

The last time I remember the hat saying playoffs rather than champions was 2006, but I could be wrong (and then it just said Division Series). I wonder if they did that this year with the two extra playoff spots and not wanted to print multiple versions of hats for the same team (although they would have to do that for T-Shirts).

Also, first time I’ve seen a champion shirt with the state picture, which is interesting for a few of the teams in the playoffs. How will this look for DC? Not all of California roots for San Francisco?

But overall good work on the merchandise, I guess I’m just jealous because the Mets aren’t in it.

The Mets go for the sweep today against the Marlins as Chris Young takes the mound against Ricky Nolasco. Young is 4-8 over 18 starts and 103.0 innings with an ERA of 4.37. He’s 1-1 over the last three starts while pitching 17.2 innings with a 3.06 ERA while striking out 12 batters. His last start against the Marlins he pitched 5.0 innings while allowing 1 ER, before that he pitched 4.1 innings allowing 7 ER (and I was at the game questioning my existence). The Marlins have the following numbers against Young:

Reyes 3-17, 3B, HR
Dobbs 3-15, 2B
Lee 3-10
Peterson 1-6
Ruggiano 3-6, 2 2B

Ricky Nolasco gets the start the Marlins, who is 12-12 this season over 29 starts while pitching 179.0 innings with an ERA of 4.42. He’s 3-0 in his last four starts while pitching 30.0 innings with a 1.20 ERA. In 11.2 innings against the Mets he has allowed 7 ER and the Mets have the following numbers against Nolasco:

Wright 20-60, 4 2B, 5 HR
Bay 6-20, 2B, 2 HR
Murphy 7-22, 2 2B
Davis 3-17, 2 2B
Torres 4-11, 2 2B

Let’s Go Mets!